Improved VR headset should be available in July 2014 for $350.

Many folks have had the occasion to try out the Oculus Rift development kit, a developer-only virtual reality headset that actually makes good on a lot of the VR promises from the 1990s. But the original Oculus Rift was never intended to be a mass-market thing—it's a tool for developers meant only to approximate the final product. Today, the Oculus team has announced something much closer to what will eventually ship to consumers: the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2.

The "DK2," as the Oculus folks are calling it, has a ton of improvements over the original Rift. The displays are much better, as the Rift DK2 bumps the pixel count up from 640×800 per eye to 960×1080 per eye. Oculus also says that the image persistence has been drastically reduced (the spec sheet says 2 to 3ms of persistence, which will make for a smoother display of images). The display also now comes with an external CMOS sensor to assist the DK2's on-board sensors with position tracking.

The redesigned DK2 has a few other thoughtful improvements as well, including an on-device USB port for plugging in gaming accessories. However, the improvements aren't free—weight has increased from about 380g to 440g.

The updated Rift DK2 is debuting right now at GDC in San Francisco, and we just so happen to have both Kyle Orland and new guy Sam Machkovech there. Look for a hands-on piece soon.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.